Poor...

In preparing for Sunday morning Bible class, I read again what is often referred to as The Beatitudes. These verses of scripture record teachings of Jesus that seemed to be such a list of contradictions.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”(Matt. 5:3)

How can you be blessed by being in an obvious negative situation?
How can you be happy by being spiritually poor? And what does it look like to be poor in spirit?

It is a common thing to find the Christian way of life in complete contradiction to that of the natural world. Spiritual and natural rarely, if ever, follow the same course.

Eternal kingdom values and temporary worldly values are so very different.

The kingdom of God is nothing like any kingdom of this earthly realm. Wealth and power are important in our world. But what we consider wealth and power are only deceptions. ANY amount of prosperity here fails to measure up to the hope and joy found in utter dependence on God, rather than any outward circumstance.

The way of the world says ‘feel good about who you are, be confident, be assertive…even aggressive”.

Jesus’ way is to embrace the truth about who I am, a spiritual beggar incapable of fixing what is wrong deep within my spirit.

In accepting that truth about myself, I find myself blessed beyond measure, called a daughter of The Most High God, a citizen of His kingdom, and standing as an heiress of the eternal kingdom of heaven.

The more I know the character and love of Jesus, the more I realize the absolute poverty of my own spirit. How merciful He is to extend such grace to this spiritual beggar.